On May 20 of last year, Edward Snowden reportedly arrived in Hong Kong carrying "four laptop computers that [enabled] him to gain access to some of the US government's most highly-classified secrets."

The idea that the rogue NSA contractor was carrying NSA documents on laptops that could potentially be compromised led to speculation that Chinese intelligence services could steal the data.

Then, after the 30-year-old flew to Moscow on July 23, a former CIA officer who visited Snowden told Reuters that the laptops in his possession with were a "diversion" and that the secrets he took from NSA systems were stored on highly-encrypted thumb drives.